Ahead of their Stanley Cup Final matchup with the Los Angeles Kings, the New York Rangers received some good news when the NHL revealed that Dan Carcillo's 10-game suspension has been reduced to six games, making him eligilble for Game 4 of the best-of-seven series.
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Carcillo was originally given a 10-game suspension after Game 3 of the Blueshirt's Eastern Conference Finals series against the Montreal Canadiens for violating Rule 40.3 of the NHL. Carcillo was given the suspension for applying physical force to an official when he appeared to elbow a linesman during the game as the official was breaking up a scrum.
After Brandon Prust broke Derek Stepan's jaw on a hit in Game 3 on a hit that wasn't deemed a penalty, Carcillo tried to get revenge and elbowed linesman Scott Driscoll in the head when the official tried to pull him away from a scrum. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault was upset about the way things went down after the game.
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"My biggest disappointment in the whole thing is probably what's happening to Dan Carcillo," Vigneault said after the game via the National Post. . "At the end of the day, if the right call is made on the ice, that whole situation doesn't happen. I still don't understand why Scott grabbed him in that fashion. All Scott had to do was tell him - Dan didn't know he had a penalty - 'can you come to the box with me here? you've got a penalty.'"
The criteria by the league calls for a suspension of "not less than 10 games" for such a penalty, but after Carcillo appealed the ruling, the NHL revised its decision to a six-game ban.
Carcillo, who had already served three games during the last series, had an appeal hearing at the NHL's New York office last Friday where the league decided that he more appropriately violated rule 40.4 and that the penalty for applying "physical force to an official for the sole purpose of getting free of such official during or immediately following an altercation" is better suited as a six-game ban.
The NHL has a zero-tolerance policy for physicality taken against officials, so Carcillo was automatically going to be punished. His punishment was reduced after he opted to appeal. Had it not been overturned, the Rangers pest would not have been able to play at all in the upcoming Stanley Cup Final series.
Carcillo is due to become a free agent after this season, so had the call not been overturned it is possible that he played his last game as a Ranger.
Carcillo has played in eight games this postseason for New York, putting up two points and 22 penalty minutes while amounting an 8:46 average time on ice.
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